Cat viral videos to be celebrated with film festival

A film festival is to go ahead in the US next month celebrating the unique cultural phenomenon of people sharing viral videos featuring cats.

The Internet Cat Video Film Festival will be staged on August 30 at the Walker Open Field venue in Minneapolis, US, reports BBC News.

Cat fans will come together to celebrate feline viral videos, such as the famous Keyboard Cat, originally recorded in 1984 and showing a cat "playing" a tune on the keyboard.

After being uploaded onto Google's YouTube in 2007, the clip has racked up more than 25 million views and spawned various remixes and even merchandise.

Katie Czarniecki, organiser of the festival, said that the event would offer people the chance to watch the videos and "LOL [laugh out loud] in the presence of others".

In a blog post announcing the event in May, she said that the festival would bring the "online kitty craze offline and out into the open… Open Field, that is".

She added: "It's no secret that internet cat videos have been all the rage for some time now. Traditionally, we send these viral gems to one another via email or share them through various social media outlets.

"Either way, while enjoyed by a broad online audience of millions, cat videos are normally viewed alone. Until now."

Czarniecki said that cat fans have until July 30 to nominate their favorite cat video to be shown at the event.

She added that the festival will be free and open to anyone in the area of the Walker Open Field, getting underway at dusk.

"Walker Open Field welcomes cat lovers (and challenges haters - c'mon, you know who you are) to openly release your cat-video-induced giggles and emotions that are otherwise muffled by computer screens and constrained by cubicles," she said.

"Rejoice and be free like my favorite triumphant slow-motion kitten playing in the video below. Let's transform this singular small screen viewing experience into a shared celebration with the larger-than-life projection of these silly clips out on the Open Field."